The present invention relates in general to insulating modular panels which can be used directly in constructing insulated structures and, more particularly, to improved insulating modular panels incorporating vacuum insulation panels therein and methods of making such panels.
Construction or building panels produced using pultrusion or extrusion of fiber reinforced plastic are well known in the building industry. The fiber reinforced plastic provides good durability, strength and surface properties required of a structural panel. To provide higher insulation from such panels, they have been formed to include an inner core of material which provides insulation and can also provide structural as well as other properties for the panels. In that regard, hollow panels have been filled with a foamable mixture to create a foam filled or foam core structure panel having a fiber reinforced plastic skin.
Another method of making a composite sandwich structure by pultrusion of a skin of liquid resin and reinforcement materials on the surface of a preformed foam core is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,320 which is incorporated herein by reference. The resulting contiguous structure is cut into desired lengths to form corresponding sized building panels.
While the resulting panels have a good R-value, there are a large number of applications that would benefit from even higher R-value insulation. For example, refrigerated shipping containers, reefers, walk-in coolers, refrigerators, freezers and the like. Many of these applications would prefer to utilize a modular panel if panels having sufficiently high R-values were available.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved insulating modular panel for satisfying these needs in industry. Preferably, such panels would incorporate intermating members into their sides to facilitate their interconnection with one another and hence construction using the panels.